Week 8 at UCC

Monday saw no classes on due to the October bank holiday.

Tuesday had us working with Eadaoin which was a welcome change in pace. Thankfully the class was not as physically straining as the last we had with her. Jools passed onto Eadaoin that we “had something to show her”. What Jools was referring to was the ensemble movement pieces that we were working on prior to this. We were fortunate enough to gain some rehearsal time beforehand. Ultimately there was not too much difficulty with rehearsing our individual and ensemble pieces. I’m not exactly sure of what Eadaoin had to say about it but the feeling was positive I suspect. Afterwards we moved onto a new exercise involving the animal personas we briefly exhibited the Monday before.

We began with the incorporation of the levels of tension but with a transformation into animals who would see something of interest, be threatened or retreat. Looking back I felt a great immersion in the exercise with reflection on how far we’ve come as an ensemble and our inhibitions have been released, allowing us to reach great potential. An improv scene was then added into our human/animal hybrid with a simple meeting in a cafe and a placing of an order. This was an exercise I could observe and preform all day as the possibilities were endless. The most enjoyable aspect was watching people who weren’t sure about their initial animals be given new ones to work with and made it their own. We divided into smaller groups and worked on individual scenes using the same animal based movements and attitudes as before. This was a nice break from the intensity of embodying our animals fully and was entertaining for the ensemble.

Fridays class saw some wonderful experimentation with the ensemble. After the warm ups we threw away what we knew about our previous animals and went for something completely opposite to what we once knew. Naturally, the step down from the brutish powerful Silverback Gorilla was a common Meerkat. My course of action was unsure aside from the darting of my head from all corners of the space but that was soon remedied once Eadaoin worked individually with our new animals. I was instructed to widen my eyes to hilarious scale with swift bursts of movements to sudden stops to survey the area. Not only did I enjoy the absolute chaos of the Meerkat I felt far more secure with the choice I made.

The class ended with a fire based piece. As an ensemble we were set alight as a bundle of kindling and had to translate that in our movements. I’m sure Eadaoin in her moments of silence was astounded with our efforts as a bunch of kindling. We later did this in groups of three to do the same. I must say I enjoy the mindlessness.